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It’s probably crossed every dog owner’s mind at least once: Why do dogs have tails? Most dogs are born with them, so it’s only natural to wonder what evolutionary purpose these appendages serve. They are essential for a dog’s daily life and support their everyday functioning.
Dogs’ tails have three primary purposes: movement, balance, and communication. Dogs use their tails for one of these three things in every part of their lives.
How Dogs Use Tails
1. Movement
Dogs’ tails are critical to their movement abilities. Dogs use their tails to aid in several vital movements, and if you watch sports dogs, you can see these tails in high gear!
For instance, when a dog jumps, they will raise their tail to increase their elevation and lower their tail when they land to improve their aerodynamics, much like the flaps on an airplane’s wings. Their tails also act as rudders when swimming and achieve the slalom motion during the weave poles in agility trials.
Movement is an essential function, even for non-sport dogs, and they use their tails to aid and achieve much of their movement.
2. Balance
For many animals, the tail serves as a critical balance tool. They use their tails as a counterbalance when they move. If you’ve ever watched your dog run or walk on a narrow surface, you’ve seen their tail hard at work, keeping them balanced. Much like a tightrope walker uses a pole to counterbalance on the rope, the dog’s tail moves side to side in the opposite direction of body tilt, as they move to keep their center of gravity steady.
Another good example is when a dog is running and must make a sharp turn. The front of the body will turn in the desired direction, but the forward momentum prevents the backside of the body from following in the same way. The dog will throw their tail in the direction they’re turning to prevent the back of the body from swinging around in a wide arc, enabling them to complete the sharp turn.
3. Communication
A tail is also an essential communication tool. Owners and other dogs can learn to refer to a dog’s tail to decipher their mood. A happy dog will hold their tail comfortably and may wag it in a wide, sweeping arc. A frightened dog will tuck their tail between their legs and against their belly.
Understanding what our dogs’ tails tell us can be critical to protecting them from perceived threats. Dogs use their tails to communicate to the outside world what they’re thinking. Knowing when your dog is feeling anxious can help you remove them from triggering situations, building trust between you and your dog.
When dogs socialize and interact with each other, their tails enable them to understand each other’s emotions and convey their own. Canines use body language, especially the tail, to express and read behavioral cues. The tail’s position and its movements help them state their friendliness, dominance, or submission. Lacking a tail can make it difficult for a dog to understand or be understood by other dogs, leading to socialization problems.
This is one of the reasons that PangoVet does not support tail docking.
Scent Messages
Concerning social interactions between dogs, the tail is more than a visual aid. Canines also use pheromones, or chemical messages, to convey information and communicate with each other. After all, their most powerful sense is theIR sense of smell.
When a dog moves their tail around, they contract the perianal area and release and spread their anal sacs’ scent in the area around them. By wagging their tail, they spread their pheromones around so other dogs can more easily understand who they are and their feelings or intentions.
Conversely, a submissive dog’s tail tuck is an attempt to “hide” or “diminish” their presence and state their desire to go unnoticed.
Tail Docking: What Is It?
Tail docking is the process of removing a dog’s tail after birth.
- Historically, people believed that removing the tip of the tail could prevent the dog from contracting rabies.
- In the herding and hunting traditions, docking the tail was historically done to prevent injury.
- Dogs’ tails were once docked to avoid taxation in England. The government waived taxing working dogs, so people started docking their dogs’ tails to mark them as such.
Sadly, although most dogs serve as pets these days, docking the tail is a breed standard for many breeds, including Poodles, Pembroke Welsh Corgis, English Springer Spaniels, and Doberman Pinschers. In general, docking as a breed standard is more common in Terriers and Spaniels.
Criticism of Tail Docking
Tail docking is a practice that is, understandably, criticized by dog lovers worldwide. At the same time, many practice supporters may point anecdotally to the sport or work improvements. No scientific justification can be made for the ludicrous idea that docking the tail prevents rabies.
The practice has been banned in many countries worldwide, and many vets recommend against the docking of tails unless the tail is unusually long for the dog’s proportions. A dog with an excessively long tail might be genuinely prone to injury, which could warrant tail shortening.
Tail docking is currently unrestricted in the United States. Although a growing movement exists to outlaw the practice, only a few states, including New York and Vermont, have considered introducing laws to ban the practice.
Tail Docking in Practice
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recommends against the docking of tails, particularly for vanity reasons. The AVMA states that there is no substantial evidence that the removal of the tail provides any protection against injury, as tail injuries make up just 0.23% of dog injuries, even among working breeds. Furthermore, a study conducted in Britain concluded that you would need to dock the tails of at least 500 dogs to prevent just one tail injury.
The AMVA has recommended that cosmetic alterations be removed from American breed standards since 1976, and the presence and wording of this recommendation have persisted. However, it acknowledges that some dogs are at a higher risk of tail injuries than others.
The future of tail docking remains murky, as some governments have taken a hardline stance against the practice while others are content to allow it to continue.
Do Dogs Need Tails?
Yes, a dog needs their tail. It’s not only critical for movement and provides physical balance to the dog, but it’s also an essential communication tool. With very few exceptions, there’s no scientific justification for shortening or removing a dog’s tail.
As we’ve covered, dogs use their tails in every facet of their lives. Unless a veterinarian recommends tail docking due to abnormal length or tail amputation due to injury or infection, there is no reason an owner should investigate the practice.
Summary
A dog’s tail is an endearing and essential part of their body. It provides various functions that are critical to the dog’s quality of life and should be protected, just like every other part of their body. Once we understand what the dog’s tail does and means, we can better understand our pets and build trust with them.
- See Also: Fascinating Facts About Your Dog’s Tail
Featured Image Credit: Bert De Schepper, Pixabay
